The present invention relates to an x-ray optical system. More particularly, the present invention relates an x-ray optical system which conditions an x-ray beam.
Researchers have long employed focusing x-ray optics in x-ray diffraction experiments to increase the flux incident on the sample and hence to increase the signal to noise ratio. A focusing optic increases the flux by directing a large number of photons through the sample. Moreover, by positioning a detector near or at the focus of the optic, resolution of the system can be greatly improved.
However, for focusing multiplayer optics, the convergence angle of such optics limits their applicability in many applications, since for an application, a different convergence angle, and thus a different optic, is often needed for different types of samples. Moreover, a number of optics with different focal lengths are used to accommodate the needs of different applications. Hence, a different focusing optic is often used for the same measurement of different samples, or for different measurements of the same sample. Using different optics is inefficient and uneconomical since changing the optical elements is a costly and time consuming drain on researchers, in particular, and industry, in general.
Optics with an adjustable focal distances have been proposed. An example of such an optic is a traditional bending total reflection mirror. However, the alignment and adjustment of these mirrors are very time consuming and difficult to perform, and any imperfection in the alignment or adjustment of the optic degrades the system performance. Moreover, this approach cannot use multilayer optics, because of the inability of the bending total reflection mirrors to satisfy both the Bragg condition and geometric condition have to be satisfied simultaneously.